Zootopia

After Disney had returned to form in 2009 with The Princess and the Frog, they continued with what they were good at and revitalized old ideas and stories into a modern era with examples like Tangled and especially Frozen, as well as creating fresh new ideas that would give people equal amounts of joy like Wreck-It Ralph and Inside Out. With all this in mind and with Disney gradually winning people back with its classical charm and heart-warming simplicity, a movie like Zootopia seemed very different for them. Coming out in 2016 around the same time as Moana (a film that felt much more like traditional Disney), the prospect of the next 3D animated Disney film being about anthropomorphic animals discussing racial prejudices seemed a bit odd for a company that usually relies on grabbing impressionable audiences through bright colors, catchy songs, and emotional forms of storytelling. While Disney has tackled dark and adult themes previously, it wasn’t on the same level as something this real and uncomfortable, which made people fear the film would be a bit preachy with its delivery. However, this isn’t what came to pass thankfully, and many people were very delighted with what they got. A young rabbit named Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) finally achieves her childhood dream of becoming the first ever bunny police officer and is sent to work in Zootopia, a place where all kinds of animals (both predator and prey) live together in harmony. Upon arriving, she discovers she’s looked down upon and not taken very seriously by her fellow police officers, especially chief Bogo (voiced by Idris Elba). After being given the chance to work on a proper investigation involving multiple disappearing animals with the threat of losing her job if she fails, Judy gets the help of a street-swindling fox named Nick (voiced by Jason Bateman), who have to work together to find the missing animals and find out why only the predators are being targeted. Handling a very adult message in a surprisingly open, intelligent, and understandable way that kids can comprehend, Zootopia mixes its themes with wonderful characters, a very distinct location, beautiful visuals, and clever entertaining writing that results in an overall very solid film.

A movie needs to be careful when it has such an important and even complex message at the centre, because it runs the risk of having it overtake what should be more crucial in a film like its story and characters. Focusing in on racism in something so clearly angled towards is going to be a tricky task, as it can’t include the obvious gruesome and horrific real truths of the matter, so it will need to be metaphorical and clever about its portrayal without losing focus. Thankfully, the screenplay for this film written by Jared Bush (who also served as co-director) and Phil Johnston is actually quite good and goes about portraying the message in not only a clever way that incorporates the world, characters and even premise into its delivery, but also does so while angling it in a different way that is not often showcased. Instead of going for the all-too-familiar and even easily glossed-over focus of ”prejudice is bad”, this film focuses on social and even political influence that further stems the problem of racism, how more often than not stereotypes are formed from individual moments or preconceived expectations put into people’s heads from a young age, how sometimes the ”othering” a sub-section of people is used to benefit and even keep up an expected way of living and continue existing with ”false equality”, and (the most important angle), that people don’t need to be evil or even misguided in order to have a prejudice. Characters that seem purely good can sometimes fall victim to this mindset, and it creates a whole new level of complexity that kids have probably never seen before, making it a pretty good first-experience for this kind of idea. While it might be a bit obvious in its delivery and in terms of real-world parallels, there are some obvious differences (racial discrimination between humans is a little different from the ingrained instinct of animals), but it’s used as a visual metaphor to extenuate its idea rather than mirror real life. It’s also good that the story itself is also decently constructed and weaves its message throughout that puts it front and centre but doesn’t distract from the characters and their emotional journey. The mystery is given enough time to flesh itself out in a manner that kids can follow but isn’t too obvious for adults, the content of this story is pretty mature, but the colorful worlds, funny lines and likeable characters keep the demographic range all-encompassing, and the directing from Byron Howard and Rich Moore is very solid at tying all these components together into a feasible manner that is intelligent but approachable and timeless in its delivery.

Zootopia was one of the first Disney movies to return to their movie-format of starring a mostly anthropomorphic cast (with Disney’s 1973, Robin Hood, being an inspiration for this film). it works as not only a nice change of pace with the modern films that also acts as a return-to-form for the company, but it also just works as a blanket but also very clear manner of demonstrating their message, as the natural divide between predator and prey in the animal kingdom is an obvious separation that can be used in this situation. Both the leads in this movie are very solid characters that hold the audience’s attention very nicely by being very interesting and engaging. Judy is an infectiously likeable main character, with her goals of overcoming a system that feels designed against her giving her easy audience sympathy points, and her positive attitude mixed with her intellect and her grappling with her own forms of prejudice makes her very fun to watch. Nick provides a great opposite for Judy with a much more cynical and sarcastic attitude creating a nice foil between the two that leads to a lot of comedic but also even some sentimental moments as well. Both Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman are perfect for these parts, both are fantastically written, and both are given backstories that not only enforce why they are who they are, but also why the two might have their own reservations of the other. The two have great chemistry, watching both of them develop is very nice, their designs are simple yet distinct and expressive, they are really well done and hold the movie up quite a bit. With this in mind, most of the other side characters are not very memorable and only really serve the message rather than the story. Some work well enough like Chief Bogo does provide a cruel and antagonistic but not unlikeable presence to the film, but most of the others aren’t that solid despite containing some pretty good voice talent like J. K Simmons, Jenny Slate, Bonnie Hunt, Octavia Spencer, and Alan Tudyk. Also, the villain is also pretty poor and is arguably the worst character in the movie (which is a common trend for recent Disney films). The role, once again, only seems to serve the story rather than for any lasting impression, the personality and character isn’t bad but isn’t strong enough for the final threat, there isn’t enough hints or clues towards this outcome to make it feel satisfying, and while it’s definitely not as bad as some other ”surprise last-minute villain twist” that Disney has had as this one at least works within the message, it still doesn’t make the character any good.

The world of Zootopia is a really interesting and cool location for the movie to spend time in, and since it is the centerpiece of the entire film (it’s literally named after it), it makes sense that it would be such a memorable world. The way its composed of various different seasonal climates and natural aspects that not only provide the movie with a nice of color and vibrant environments, but also establishes the world into its own unique thing. Seeing the various ways animals interact with a seemingly humanistic metropolitan city leads to a lot of creatively fun sequences that even bleed over into some of the action scenes; watching a chase scene through the streets of a mouse-sized town gives it a whole new perspective than it would normally have. This is where the 3D animation truly shines, as the various ways this area is shot and angled really brings it to life in a great way, and while it’s a shame that not every portion of it is explored (with the characters only going to one or two areas), it still makes for a very memorable location. The animation is just really nice, with each of the characters being designed with typical cartoony features and expressive but given the texture and vibrancy of their respected animals, it’s a very nice job. The writing for the film is very good at balancing its serious and comedic elements together, as despite the real-world implications sewn throughout the story that can makes things a little uncomfortable, it still has a lot of funny moments to balance it out. The writing is so tight and quick that the audience might not even comprehend it the first time around, it’s done quite well, and this charm and wit comes from the characters, so it’s always welcomed and fitting. Once and a while, there’s an overly drawn out or even awkward joke that just feels random (like the duo going to what is essentially a nudist colony for animals), but those aren’t too frequent thankfully).

Zootopia is definitely a more modern Disney film with its presentation, mature themes, and delivery, cast of characters and choice of actors, and its animation style, but it’s also one that definitely feels like it’s going to last. While the message may seem like it may get in the way of things and has been done so often that it shouldn’t be that big a deal anymore, not only is this message tragically still needed (and for some people, it needs to be blatantly stated), but it doesn’t get in the way of the solid story, impressive screenplay, very engaging leads and captivating world and visuals. It’s hard to say that this is a perfect movie as it has a few touches that could have been better thought out and it doesn’t feel like it has the same universal appeal as some of the other Disney ‘perfects’, but it’s not too far behind. Enter the world of Zootopia and see how this flick can offer more than you’d expect it to.